The new agency is tasked with countering disinformation and boosting the population’s resilience in the face of possible influence operation
Summary
- Sweden has launched a new agency dedicated to defending the country against disinformation, propaganda and psychological warfare in the latest part of its efforts to bring military and civil defence back towards Cold War levels.
- A soon-to-be-published study for Sweden’s Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) has found that as many as 10 per cent of Swedes read articles from Sputnik News, Russia’s international propaganda agency.
- Previous reports for MSB have placed Russia’s propaganda campaigns in Sweden within a broader push to polarise debate and sow disunity in Europe more broadly.
- The agency would strive to strike a balance between protecting against propaganda and seeking to control the information available to the public, he said.
- “This is not the Ministry of Truth or a State Information Board like we had during the Cold War,” he said.